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ADDfiESS OF WELCOME, 

WILSOX MrCANDI.ESS, 



MR. ADAMS' REPLY; 

TllUETIIlOU WITH 

A LETTER FROM MR. ADAMS RELATIVE TO JUDGE 
BRACKENRIDGE'S "MODERN CHIVALRY." 



"Nil. 



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PUBI.I^^HE1) BY BEtiUliSX. 



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PITTSBURGH: 
Printed by Bakewell & IMarthens, 71 Grant Strei- 

1873. 




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ADDRESS OF WELCOME, 



BY -- 

WILSON McCANDLESS, 



MR. ADAMS' REPLY; 

TOGETHER WITH 

A LETTER FROM MR. ADAMS RELATIVE TO JUDGE 
BRACKEN RIDGES " MODERN CHIVALRY." 



PUBLISHED BY KEqUEbT. 




PITTSBURGH : 

Printed by Bakewell & Maethens, 71 Gkant Street. 

1873. 



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"S'l 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Mr. Adams : 

I have been deputed by my fellow-citi- 
zens, of aW|>ar/ies, to bid you a hearty welcome to this 
city. I have been directed, Sir, to tender to you the 
hospitalities of the people, and of the corporate 
authorities of this, and of our young, but flourishing, 
sister of Allegheny. 

We have not strewed flowers in your path, nor 
erected triumphal arches at your approach, but greet 
you with the homage of grateful hearts, as evinced in 
this spontaneous outpouring of the people. Here, 
Sir, is the token of that universal regard in which 
you are held by the free citizens of this great country. 
And here, Sir, you have the reward for a long life of 
meritorious public service. 

What can be more endearing to the heart of the 
patriot, than this exhibition of public sentiment; 
than this manifestation of love for your person, and 
admiration for your exalted talents and virtues. Like 
the son of Marcus Cato, you have been a foe to ty- 



rants, and your country's friend, and that country 
now tenders to you the tribute of her affection and 
gratitude. 

You seem, Sir, "like the aged oak, standing alone 
on the plain, which time has spared a little longer, 
after all its cotemporaries have been levelled with 
the dust," but the jjeople delight to gather round the 
venerable trunk, an^ dwell beneath the shadow of its 
yet green foliage. 

Associated as you have been with the Father of 
HIS Country, partaking largely of his confidence, and 
deeply imbued with the lofty patriotism of his char- 
acter, it must be gratifying to you, to visit this, the 
theatre of his earliest achievements. 

Here, standing on the portals of the Mississippi 
valley, his jirophetic eye reaching far into futurity, 
he saw the materials for that great empire, with its 
teeming millions, that now revere and venerate his 
name. Here it was that Providence thrice spared 
his invaluable life. Once, on the Venango path, 
when the rifle of the warrior flashed in the pan. 
Again, when his frail raft gave way, and he was pre- 
cij)itated amid ice and snow, and the raging of 
the elements, into the rapid waters of the Alle- 
gheny. And again, on the shores of the Monouga- 
hela, when Braddock, and Halket, and Peyronney 
fell, by the deadly aim of the French and Indians. 
Two horses shot under him, his clothes perforated 
with bullets, himself a bright and shining mark, yet 



the leaden messengers were turned aside by an invis- 
ible Hand, and lie was saved to lead the armies of his 
country to victory, and to lay deep that precious 
corner-stone of civil polity, that has no parallel in the 
history of the world. 

Here it was that in the wigwams, and partaking of 
the hospitality of King Shingiss and Queen Alla- 
quippa, his heart imbibed that warm and active 
benevolence for the sons of the forest, that was 
so conspicuous in his subsequent administration of 
the government. 

Here it was that the influence of his great name 
suppressed an insurrection that threatened to sap the 
foundation of our beautiful political edifice. And 
here, Sir, he has a monument in the affection of his 
countrymen more durable than brass or marble, and 
Avhich will remain steadfast, as long as the rippling 
current of the Ohio flows on to the bosom of the 
Father of waters. 

In 1798, the first armed vessel that ever floated on 
the western waters was constructed hei-e under the 
direction of a Revolutionary officer. She was a row- 
galley, mounting a solitary gun, and was intended to 
protect our infant trade with that splendid domain 
afterwards acquired to the Union by the wisdom 
and foresight of your illustrious frieud and cotem- 
porary, Mr. Jefferson. 

The name of that vessel was the John Adams, 
And, if tradition is to be credited, after performing 



6 

tluty liero, she lioisteJ sails, entered the peaceful pur- 
suits of commerce, crossed the Atlantic, passed the 
straits of Gibraltar, wended her way up the Medi- 
terranean, threaded tlie Archipelago, and penetrated 
to the Dardanelles on the borders of Asia Minor ; 
thus carrying on her prow into the very bosom of a 
despotic country, the name of one of the honored 
actors in the great struggle for Kepublican liberty. 

Look at the contrast now ! Instead of the barge, 
and the row-galley, our skilful mechanics in 1843 
completed, on the very bastions of old Fort Duquesne, 
an iron ship of war that is to carry on the Northern 
Lakes the stars and stripes of our beloved country — 
and a frigate is now in progress of construction, 
which with her "iron sides," is destined to defend the 
honor of the American name "in every sea under the 
whole heavens." 

When your venerated Sire, with burning zeal, pro- 
claimed independence noiv, independence forever; 
when, with heroic and inflexible resolution, he signed 
his name to the great charter of our liberty, the place 
on which you now stand was a barren and unproduc- 
tive forest. Now, 

" As the swollen column of ascending smoke," 

SO swells her grandeur. From a thousand chimneys 
are emitted the living evidences of her 2>rosperity. 
The flaming fire, the busy hammer, the revolving 
roller, all give daily, hourly proof of her rapid ad- 
vancement. Here the rough misshapen elements of 



iintuvu are fonueu and luouldtHl to suit tlio purposes 
of man. Here machines to mitigate the toil of the 
laborer, and to facilitate intercourse between the 
States, are made with a skill unsurpassed even by the 
old world. Here the anchor is forged to give secur- 
ity and protection to the \\e;ither-beateu mariner. 
Here the shovel and the mattock, the ]ilough and the 
iiarrow, go forth to ease the labors of tlii' liusband- 
man. And here the naked are clothed and the 
hungry fed, by the evolution of machinery "and the 
potent agency of steam." 

To what are we indebted for all these blessings? 
Since the war of the Revolution, to that wise tariff 
policy by which you were regulated when at the head 
of the government, and as chairman of the Committee 
on Manufactures in the Congress of the United 
States. No base subserviency to Foreign Powers dic- 
tated your course, but a manly and determined sup- 
jiort of the true interests of the country, by the pro- 
tection of its industry, and by a proper reciprocity 
of countervailing restrictions. 

We thank you. Sir — we thank you with the truest 
friendship and the deepest sincerity. 

We honor you for the lustre you have shed on all 
the high places it has been your good fortune to 
occupy — ^we praise you for that sublimest virtue which 
shines in all your actions — we see in your brow that 
undaunted valor which renders you inexorably firm in 
the discliarge of all your public duties, and in your 



8 

eye "that inextinguishable spark, that fires the souls 
of patriots,'' 

Great and good Citizen! Venerable and Venera- 
ted Man ! Panegyric or Eulogy, now, or hereafter, 
cannot add one cubit to your stature. Live on — live 
on, in honor and in glory — and when "this cor- 
ruptible does put on incorruption, and this mortal, 
immortality," I pray God that it may be in the calm 
serenity of that summer's evening, when bonfires and 
illuminations light up the land, in commemoration of 
that glorious independence, to the achievement of 
which your illustrious father so largely, so emi- 
nently contributed. 



MR. ADAMS' REPLY. 



Fellow-Citizens : 

Before I attempt to address you, and to 
respond to the eloquent discourse pronounced under 

circumstances so unauspicious to eloquence, I must j 

apologize for my appearance before you. ( 

. I had expected to have had the honor of meeting \ 

you on this day and at this time ; and arrangements ) 

were made to render it convenient to yourselves, but 
it so happened that the bark on which we had taken 
our passage, as if anxious to arrive at the end of her _ 
voyage, and partaking of my feelings, arrived before 
tiie time, when your preparations to receive me were 
mot completed. My appearance was, therefore, acci- 
dental and unexpected, and as my apology, I would 
remind you of the saying of the great Poet of Na- 
ture, Shakespeare, who says : 

" Lovers break not hours, 
Exccjit it be to come before their time." 

If the lover is privileged to " break hours " and 
" come before his time," I trust you will accept it as 

9, 



10 

my excuse, and impute it to the arilor of a lover 
desiring to see the beloved of his soul. 

Fellow citizens ! I had motives of the most cogent 
nature to inspire me with that feeling, in times past 
— I trust forever — when my position was anything 
but what I find it now — at a time when I was in a 
position of difficulty and danger, I had the gratifica- 
tion to receive testimonials of regard, respect and 
sympathy from the citizens of Pittsburgh, beyond 
what I received from any other portion of the United 
States, my own constituents and the city of Roches- 
ter alone excepted. I shall always entertain a feel- 
ing of gratitude, belonging to the nature of man, 
towards the citizens of Pittsburgh, for their attention 
and sympathy on that trying occasion. I had never 
flattered myself with the expectation or hope that it 
should be in my power to personally return them 
those thanks which were due ; but they were indel- 
ibly imjn-essed ujion my heart — and it is owing 
rather to accidental circumstances that I now enjoy 
that satisfaction. 

During the last summer, I received an invitation 
to visit a western city, to jierform an act solely con- 
nected with the j^romotion of science, and totally 
separated from j^olitics — I came for the jJurpose of 
lending ray aid to an object for the advancement and 
promotion of the happiness of man on earth — for the 
advancement of knowledge, for which I hojie all jjar- 
ties are equally zealous — the laying of the corner-stone * 



11 

for au Astronomical Observatory at Cincinnati. I ac- 
cepted it, and scarcely had it become ^niblicly known, 
till I saw in the public papers a call from some of my 
personal friends in this city, to visit and be received 
by them on my way to or from the point of my desti- 
nation. This reached my ears as coming from personal 
friends ; by personal friends I mean those who, du- 
ring a long life, have approved of my political course 
and actions. Of personal friends, strictly speaking, 
I have but few among your number — there are few 
in your city with whom I have had the honor of a 
personal acquaintance. For this expression of con- 
fidence and this invitation, I felt that gratitude was 
due from me. 

But scarcely was that invitation consummated till 
a still more comprehensive one, from the citizens of 
all the political parties, was given to me. This was 
an honor which has never been extended to me be- 
fore, and I am not aware that it has been to any 
other — it forms an epoch in our history's history, 
and if in any thing I can foresee the voice of pos- 
terity, it is in that ! 

In compliance with these invitations, and particu- 
larly the last, I now appear before you. I had in- 
tended to advert to some topics of general interest, 
and to the j^rinciples which have governed my 
course of conduct heretofore, but leaving them to the 
judgment of all, and avoiding any thing calculated 
to oft'end any ; — but time will not allow, and the cir- 



12 

cumstances are such that I cannot think of detain- 
ing you here. I must therefore request you simply 
to receive the effusions of gratitude from my breast, 
applied to each and every one of you. I hope you 
will consider those remarks which I intended to have 
made, as indicative of the desire which I felt to re- 
pay you in some manner for your attentions towards 
me ; and I trust that the blessings of a bounteous 
Providence may rest upon you individually, and that 
the almighty Ruler of the Universe may render 
your course, as a community, glorious and happy 
hereafter, as it has been honorable heretofore ! 



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CORRESPONDENCE. 



Pittsburgh, March 29, 1847. 

Hon. John Quincy Adams, 

Washington. Olty, D. C, 

Deak Sir : A day or two after I had the honor of 
addressing you at the instance of the citizens of 
Pittsburgh and Allegheny, I met you at the hospi- 
table table of Col. Robinson. To me, and to all 
around, the conversation was most entertaining. All 
the leading incidents connected with the history of 
Western Pennsylvania, from the Whiskey Insurrec- 
tion down, seemed to be as familiar to you as to any 
native to the " manor born." I recollect well your 
inquiries relating to the honored widow of the author 
of " Modern Chivalry," and how animated you were 
in speaking of Captain Farrago and Teague O'Re- 
gan. Cervantes would have laughed and rejoiced at 
your association of these western heroes with his 
own, and the author felt complimented with your 
favorable criticism of a work which he never ex- 
pected to reach a second edition. 

Perusing a reprint of the work this evening, it 
occun-ed to me that you might be amused in reading 



14 

it, and I havf: therefore taken the liberty of enclos- 
ing it. 

Trusting that your health is much improved and 
that it will continue so, 

I have the honor to be, 
witli the most profound regard, 

your obedient servant, 
WILSON McCANDLESS. 



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Washington, 1st April, 1847. 

Wilson McCanpless, Esq., 

Pittsb Krgh, Penn sylvania. 

Dear Sir : I cannot lose a moment before ac- 
knowledging the receij^t of your letter of the 29th 
ult., and of the valuable present which accompanies 
it — the two volumes of the new edition of Judge H. 
H. Brackenridge's "Modern Chivalry, or the Ad- 
ventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O'Regan." 
My visit to Pittsburgh in 1843, and my intercourse 
with yourself, with the citizens of that place and 
Allegheny, at that time, afford me some of the most 
pleasing recollections of my life, grateful recollec- 
tions of my obligations to yourself and them. 

I had read the first part of Modern Chivalry and 
formed a pleasant acquaintance with Captain Far- 
rago and his man Teague, at their first appearance 
more than half a century since, and they had then 
excited much of my attention as illustrations of life 
and manners peculiar to the times and localities, not 
entirely effaced when I became more familiarly ac- 
quainted with them, by this visit to the latter. 

Captain Farrago and Teague O'Regan are legiti- 
mate descendants, on one side from the La Mancha 
and his squire Sancho, on the other, from Sir Hudi- 
bras and his man Ralph, and if not primitive con- 
ceptions themselves, are at least as lineal in their 
descent as the pious ^Eneas from the impetuous and 
vindictive son of Pelias. 



16 

The reappearance of this work, as a second edition, 
since the anther's death, more than half a century 
after its first ]niblication, well warrants the predic- 
tion that it will last beyond the period fixed by the 
ancient statutes, for the canonization of poets, a full 
century. I shall read it over again, I have no doubt, 
with a refreshing revival of the pleasure with which 
I greeted it on its first appearance ; and if this ex- 
pression of iny opinion can give any satisfaction to 
the remaining relatives of Judge Brackenridge, or 
to yourself, it is entirely at your disposal, being 
with a vivid sense and grateful remembrance of your 
kindness, and that of my fellow-citizens of Pitts- 
burgh and Allegheny, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 
J. Q. ADAMS. 



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